ROYAL MESS

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ABSTRACT: FOREIGN AFFAIRS about the arrest in Saudi Arabia of dissident Muhammad al-Masari, and the opposition movement to the ruling House of Saud. Tells about his arrest by the Mabaheth–the Saudi secret police. Masari had been participating in clandestine meetings to build an opposition movement to the Royal House of Saud, the dynasty that has held absolute power in Saudi Arabia since 1932, when King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud united the country under his control. The week before his arrest, on May 5th, Masari and a group of some half-dozen highly respected professors, lawyers, and judges of impeccably orthodox Islamic credentials publicly unveiled the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights. Masari's grievances are reflective of the grievances in society at large, Oespecially about the royal family and corruption,” an American diplomat says. In a kingdom where an investment of $350 billion in development has yielded a vulgar display of malls, half-built prefabs, and sterile plazas, the patina of the oil boom is cracking badly. Construction sites sit abandoned for nonpayment of bills, schools and hospitals deteriorate, and power cuts and water shortages disrupt a life that at the best of times had the allure of a dry Holiday Inn cocktail lounge. One American diplomat said, “Wow! Not good. The trend lines are there. Five years before the Shah fell, who would have thought he would fall?” Tells about the Saudi bill for the Gulf War and the Saudi lack of cash. Masari, after being released from prison, slipped a secret-police squad, and disappeared into an underground railroad, which eventually took him to Britain. Tells how his wife's son, a five-year-old American citizen, was detained by police and forbidden to leave Saudi Arabia.